The Mortlach Saskatoon Berry Festival is back for its 12th year on June 29, kicking off with a pancake breakfast at 8 a.m. and continuing on through the day with a whole list of interesting things — pies, music, shopping, and more.
One of the festival’s organizer’s, Marcia Wiman, finds that the day will be well worth checking out, with so many different things going on.
“It's really a family-oriented event,” said Wiman. “There's a little bit of something for everybody.”
As usual, the parade will begin at 11 a.m., along with square dancing and clogging demonstrations in both the morning and afternoon from local dancers.
The Easy Riders Horse Club are hosting events beginning at 9 a.m. Wagon rides are being offered all day, as well as an impressive Show and Shine.
A number of vendors have signed up to be at the Trade Show from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and will certainly have whatever you may be looking for: from books to health supplements, linens to jewelry, honey to concrete yard decorations.
There will be several food vendors in attendance, to fuel the crowd to take on the various activities going on throughout the day.
And, of course, the kids will have tons to do: activities at Vimy Park beginning at 11:30 a.m., like face painting, bouncy castles, and pedal tractors.
A number of educational displays will be set up in the gym at Mortlach School, which is also where a special display will be available to see: a time capsule buried by Mortlach students 25 years ago, that was dug up this year.
Current Mortlach students will be refilling the capsule and burying it for another 25 years.
“The contents of the time capsule are also going to be on display, in the gym that day,” said Wiman. “It'll be interesting to see, what actually went in there and in another 25 years, it'll be interesting to see what people put in it now.”
The ever-popular Saskatoon berry pies are also returning, the namesakes of the whole festival. This year, the committee has ordered 550 pies from Prairie Berries in Keeler, and are taking preorders from June 1 until June 26.
“The [preordered] pies will be there in a box and you pick it up when you're ready to leave, rather than taking it and leaving it in your car,” said Wiman.
Otherwise, the pies will be for sale the day of the festival, beginning at 9am until quantities run out.
Last year, Wiman guessed they sold out of pie entirely by midafternoon — not a slice left in town.
There will also be a pie eating contest in the afternoon, alongside some notable musical entertainment and a beer garden beginning at noon.
Juno Award nominee Megan Nash is taking the stage first at 12 p.m., followed by Moose Jaw’s Random Honesty at 1:30 p.m., and closing with the Tilted Kilts — accompanied by a group of Irish dancers — from 3:30 to 5 p.m.
It's a busy day for Mortlach, as they usually see around 1,500 people come through for the festival. The organizers invite everyone to come out and “Meet Me in Mortlach.”
“There’s just lots of rural hospitality,” said Wiman. ”It's a good way for the local people to come in and just spend the day visiting with all their neighbors that they never get to see.”
A full schedule for the festival and more information about preordering can be found on their Facebook page.
